CONWAY, Ark. (February 1, 2016) – Hendrix College English professor
Dr. Tyrone Jaeger’s first collection of short stories titled So
Many True Believers will be released February 16 by
Queen’s Ferry Press of Plano, Texas.
Hendrix seniors Ali Bair ’16 and Kate Engler ’16 are making a video trailer for the book. The trailer will also feature music by Jackie Nyamutumbu ’16.
There will be a book launch and reading at the Oxford American Annex at South on Main in Little Rock on Tuesday, March 29, at 7 p.m.
About So Many True Believers
“While the collection’s subject matter covers a lot of ground – from drug addiction to cults to life on the streets to the usual stuff of stories, love, sex, deceit – at the heart of So Many True Believers is an attempt to understand the degree to
which our lives are shaped by belief, often beliefs that run against our better judgment,” said Jaeger, who came to Hendrix in 2008 as Writer-in-Residence, a newly created position supported by the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language. “Many
of the characters in this book have misguided convictions and possess a myopic sense of self, making their attempts at noble action clumsy at best. In the X-Files, Fox Mulder has a poster on his office wall that reads, ‘I Want to Believe,’ and for many of us, the desire to
believe, whether it be in a conspiracy, a religion, or someone else’s story, is what allows us to endure. Little desiring machines are we.”
Though the stories, written over a 15-year period, are not inspired by any single thing, they are all linked by characters and place, all lines drawn back to a high school for at-risk youth, and one well-meaning but imprudent teacher, Jaeger said.
“Like most writers, I’m a collector of images and people, stray spirits and snippets of dialog,” he said. “Some of the stories developed out of desire to conjure in writing certain places, like Colfax Avenue in Denver or a school I worked at for some years. My obsessions appear as do other
strands of curiosity – UFOs, image culture, and horse racing.”
Jaeger said he tries “to write the kind of stuff I want to read or the kind of movie I want to see.”
“If I’m at all successful, readers who enjoy Denis Johnson, Flannery O’Connor, Jennifer Egan, or say the films of David Lynch, Robert Altman, or Wes Anderson, will take pleasure from the collection,” he said.
According to the publisher, “So Many True Believers gives voice to the wanton, the restless, and those hell bent on self-destruction … Mystery, magic, and gritty realism are coiled against a backdrop of failed relationships and addictions in this darkly humorous debut collection depicting the frayed edges of the
American psyche.”
Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies, said, "Tyrone Jaeger is a new writer with a big heart, a delight in language, and a deft and subtle touch; So Many True Believers is gentle and melancholy, a story collection linked like a set of Christmas
lights, a series of bright bulbs glowing against the cold and dark night."
"So Many True Believers is a wonderful book of songs from a single musical; heartbreak songs, songs of wonder and disbelief. We leave the Tyrone Jaeger Theater reminded that our notion of sanity depends on a daily and perilous reclamation of self and hope," said Mark Richard, author of The Ice at the Bottom of the World.
"So Many True Believers is great American Gothic, in the vein of Flannery O’Connor’s fiction, or the novels of Daniel Woodrell – haunting, perverse, gritty, darkly comic,” said The
Swan Gondola author Timothy Schaffert. Jaeger’s characters are fascinatingly un-plucky; even the most capable of them are barely muddling through, following twisted instincts as they navigate the pitfalls that await their every step. These stories are heartfelt portraits of psychological
depth."
Some of the characters who appear in So Many True Believers also appear in Radio Eldorado, Jaeger’s forthcoming novel. Queen’s Ferry Press will publish the novel in 2017.
Jaeger’s agent is Hendrix alumnus Tim Wojcik ’11, who pitchedRadio Eldorado as “Rachel Kushner’s The Flamethrowers meets a cast of characters fit for a Denis Johnson novel.”
Set during the tumultuous end of the 60s, Radio Eldorado tells the story about the counterculture movement in the Rocky Mountain West.
About
Dr. Tyrone Jaeger
Dr. Tyrone Jaeger is an alumnus of Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and received his doctorate in creative writing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He came to Hendrix in 2008 as Writer-in-Residence, a newly created position supported by the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in
Literature and Language. In addition to So Many True Believers, Jaeger has written a cross-genre novella titled
Runaway Note . Learn more about Dr. Tyrone Jaeger at
http://www.tyronejaeger.com.
About Hendrix College
Hendrix College is a private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1876 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884, Hendrix is featured in Colleges That Change Lives:
40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges and is nationally recognized in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings for academic quality, community, innovation, and value. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.